Kennett High robotics team enjoys successful season

07/17/2013 11:15AM
● Published by ACL

Kennett High School Demon Robotics followed its rookie season in 2011-12 with a successful competitive season.

This year’s competition, “Ultimate Ascent,” featured a disk shooting game. Robots were designed to fire disks into slots located at various heights in order to score one, two, or three points. After time expired, team members worked to suspend their robot on a tower in order to score bonus points.

Kennett’s team with their robot, Demonator II, in competitions at Hatboro-Horsham and Chestnut Hill and advanced to quarterfinals. At the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship at Lehigh University in April, the team finished 17th out of 49 teams.

According to team president Steven Lawton, “The team did fantastic. Once we worked out a few glitches with the robot, we really played well. I’m very proud of the team’s performance, and it was a big improvement over last year.”

Although the team did not advance to the playoffs – and a shot at the national championship in St. Louis – they’re already making plans for next year.

Founded in 2010, Mid-Atlantic Robotics (MAR) is a non-profit corporation that spans all of Delaware, New Jersey and counties in Pennsylvania from Harrisburg eastward. MAR is affiliated with FIRST (Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a not-for-profit organization founded in 1989 that aims to inspire youth and promote interest in science and technology through robotic competitions that involve 2,500 teams and 58,000 students in the U.S. and around the world.

Under strict rules, limited resources, and time limits, teams of are challenged to raise funds, design a team brand, hone teamwork skills, and build and program robots to perform prescribed tasks against a field of competitors. Volunteer professional mentors guide each team.